On Thursday, the Government suspended the collection and payment of tuition fees in all public and private educational institutions, until the resumption of face-to-face classes, which has no date scheduled.
The joint executive decree No. 201/20 of the ministries of Public Administration, Labour and Social Security, Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and Education also states that the "monthly fees paid during the period in which the State of Emergency was in force shall be deducted in the other months foreseen in the calendar of the readjusted academic year 2020".
In a statement to Lusa, D'jandira Catela do Vale, of the executive committee of the children's centres of ANEP (Association for Private Education), considered that the decree raises economic but also social and educational problems.
The representative of the executive committee, which includes more than 200 private children's centres and co-financed by the state with all the facilities (nursery and kindergarten) of Luanda, Bié, Huíla, Zaire, Benguela and Cabinda, recalled that the schools have been closed since 22 April, when the state of emergency was declared, but have continued their work with the children.
"We have made investments in technology, we have started working online, we have been with the children through the 'zoom' platform so that they do not lose their routines and continue their cognitive development," he said.
But many parents have stopped paying the centres and many survive on less than 30 per cent of tuition fees or even lower amounts, although they still have "absurd" rental expenses and staff.
For this reason, around 5000 contracts have already been suspended and more will follow, estimated D'jandira Catela do Vale.
"At least any of this equipment needs at least ten people to function," she said.
In May, payments to the centres were "chaotic", given the legislation according to which only up to 60 per cent of the fees could be charged, and many parents even stopped paying.
"This last month we've already made a loss. How does a decree now come out that says we have to return payments that we didn't even receive?", questioned the person in charge, who also owns a children's centre that had to lay off 40 employees with "mouths to feed".
D'jandira said that the schools were taken by surprise, since they have been in contact with the Ministry of Education and did nothing to anticipate this decision.
"At no point did we see this on the horizon. At this moment, we are unable to invoice, even the little bit that we were getting was taken away from us", he said.
D'jandira Catela do Vale called for "a reflection" from the Government so that the schools can continue to work and foresees that if the decision is not reversed, at least 150 of the children's centres represented on the executive committee will have to close.
The representative pointed out that the centres do not advocate the physical presence of children for the moment, but only the possibility of continuing to work and billing.
"Many are in debt, have borrowed, pay high rents and will end up closing doors for good. A lot of people are going into misery," he warned.
Classes were to restart between 13 and 27 July, initially for the 2nd cycle of secondary and higher education and then for primary education.
However, "in the last 15 days, the country has recorded a significant increase in cases of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a fact that is embodied in a negative picture of the epidemiological evolution of covid-19 in national territory", preventing the resumption of classes on the scheduled dates, according to the diploma published on Thursday that makes the resumption of school activities dependent on the epidemiological assessment.
Angola has already registered 458 positive cases of the disease, of which 23 deaths, 117 recovered and 319 active.
